Today, the Superior International Junior Hockey League is pleased to announce the commencement of its regular schedule for the 2020-21 season.
Previously scheduled as pre-season games, the Kam River Fighting Walleye and Thunder Bay North Stars will continue their Teleco Cup series this Friday, November 27 at NorWest Arena with the added motivation of regular season standings points on the line. The two teams will face off again Saturday, November 28 also at NorWest Arena. Both games are at 8:00pm.
The following night, November 29, the Dryden Ice Dogs will visit the Red Lake Miners at Cochenour Arena for an 8:00pm puck drop in what should be an entertaining start to the season for those teams after a couple of close pre-season games that went right down to the final buzzer. The same two team will face-off the following night, also at the Cochenour Arena, this time a 7:30pm start.
The remainder of the SIJHL schedule will be released in the coming days. Follow www.sijhlhockey.com for up-to-date schedule information.
“It’s a great feeling to get to the point of getting into our regular season,” said SIJHL Commissioner Darrin Nicholas. “It’s a little later than we had originally hoped but I know the players and teams are glad to get to this stage and are eager to play meaningful games.”
On the pivot from pre-season, Nicholas added “We had a couple of issues impacting our ability to start the regular season a couple of weeks ago that have since been resolved. Also, given the non-competition periods we need to observe due to COVID-19 restrictions, it became clear that we would need to get some regular season games completed before the Christmas break or risk our schedule going too long into the spring and losing ice in some of our facilities.”
Each team will play a 20-game regular season schedule with the top-four regular season finishers in the standings advancing to the Bill Salonen Cup semi-finals.